Letter: Police should remember who they work for

Friday

May 23, 2014 at 6:02 PM

I was surprised to see Fall River Police Sgt. James Machado speak out, on behalf of the Massachusetts Police Association, against the right of citizens to video tape their arrests and the arrests of others.

I was surprised to see Fall River Police Sgt. James Machado speak out, on behalf of the Massachusetts Police Association, against the right of citizens to video tape their arrests and the arrests of others.

In a May 13 Boston Herald article, Machado complains that police are not allowed to audiotape conversations between arrestees and their lawyers, and says allowing the public to audiotape arrests is thus unfair to the police.

“We just simply want to be treated and looked at in the same way as individual citizens,” Machado is quoted as saying. “The problem is sometimes we’re not sure if they are a snapshot of what went on or the entire picture.”

The fact is Machado is a hired employee. It is not for him to make the rules, but to follow them, and if he feels he cannot do his job properly, he should resign. Instead, Machado seems to feel the police are a law to themselves and should be able to do whatever they want.

This sort of attitude should not be tolerated in this country which draws its heritage from Anglo-Saxon England and its tradition that all men are free and equal. America is not China, North Korea or pre-liberation Iraq. The police are and should be subordinate to the people.